The Depth of the Leafs
The Question of who will make the Leafs Roster opening night is still up for grabs, and thats mostly due to the depth on this club. First, lets look at goaltending. The Leafs have three nhl calibre goaltenders. Telqvist, Aubin, and Raycroft have all shown that they can be the starting goaltender. While there are still rumors that Tellqvist may be on the move, it looks as though one of these goaltenders will start the season in a Marlies uniform. This will definetly come in handy for the team should one of the goaltenders fall to injury.
The Leafs defence core is where the team has most of its depth. McCabe, Kaberle, Kubina, and Gill will definetly be on the roster, but the final two spots are up for grabs. Seven players including Colaiacovo, White, Harrison, Bell, Wozniewski, Kronwall, and even Pilar (Who will come to the Leafs training camp on a trial basis) will be competing for those spots. While Colaiacovo and Pilar are the most experienced players, White and Harrison seemed to have the most success at the NHL level.
The forward positions are just as crowded. Sundin, O’neil, Tucker, Ponikarovski, Antropov, Peca, Stajan, Steen, Wellwood and Kilger seem to have sure spots in the Leafs lineup, but the final two spots are uncertain. Belak, Pohl, Battaglia, Ondrus, Williams, Suglobov, and Westrum will be competing for those two positions. Battaglia has played for Paul Maurice with the Hurricanes so he might be one of the guys that cracks the roster. Also, Pohl showed last season that he can compete at an nhl level.
In total, there are 30 players that have a shot at making the opening night 20 man roster. All have NHL experience, and quite a few have played for Maurice before with both the Marlies and Hurricanes. Head coach Paul Maurice has some tough decisions to make before October 4th.